Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: No clarity over Karnataka Cabinet expansion, and more

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi at 10, Janpath in Delhi on May 26. Following several rounds of negotiations over Cabinet expansion in Karnataka — where both Mr. Siddaramaiah and his Deputy D.K. Shivakumar have been pushing their loyalists for ministerial posts — sources say the names of around 20 more Ministers are expected to be finalised today.

Keeping an eye on next year’s Lok Sabha polls, sources said the challenging task for both leaders is to ensure that all communities are adequately represented in the Cabinet. There are demands from dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities and OBCs for higher representation for their MLAs since they have played a major role in voting the Congress to power.

JD(S) leader and former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has slammed the “hypocrite Congress” for boycotting the inauguration of the new Parliament building. The Congress and some other political parties have decided to shun the inauguration of the building on May 28 saying that it should have been done by President Droupadi Murmu and not Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A day after former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda announced his decision to attend the inauguration, his son and the JD(S) second-in-command Mr. Kumaraswamy said the call given by Congress showed its double standard to advance its “trivial politics” to turn votes in its favour by “pleasing certain communities”.

The Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK-2023) Under Graduate Entrance Test (UGET) will be held on Sunday, May 28, for admissions to over 150 engineering colleges and over 50 private and deemed universities.

The computer-based examination will be held at 264 test centres in 180 cities across India. Around 96,607 candidates are expected to be taking the test this year.

Have you been receiving weather alerts via SMS and wondering where they are coming from? The alerts are being disseminated under the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) new Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), an Integrated Alert System which has been set up to inform the common public about emergencies and disasters.